Engineering & Admin
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Snowflake Role Reference

The named roles, what each can read and write, and which warehouses each may use. PHI versus de-identified access is gated by role — each user gets the least-privileged role that still does the job.

Role hierarchy

text
NDP_RWD_DOMAIN_ADMIN_ROLE (human admins + service users)  RWD_DATA_ENGINEER_ROLE (engineers + dbt service user)       RWD_ANALYST_PHI_ROLE           RWD_RESEARCHER_PHI_ROLE                RWD_VIEWER_PHI_ROLE       RWD_ANALYST_DEID_ROLE           RWD_RESEARCHER_DEID_ROLE                RWD_VIEWER_DEID_ROLE       RWD_NOTEBOOK_USER_ROLE (add-on)       RWD_STREAMLIT_DEVELOPER_ROLE (add-on)

Roles inherit downward: a Data Engineer has all permissions of Analyst, Researcher, and Viewer combined.

Role selection guide

User typeRecommended roleReasoning
BI consumer (dashboards only)RWD_VIEWER_PHI_ROLERead-only on LIMS_COHORTS + DASHBOARD only.
Researcher / scientistRWD_RESEARCHER_PHI_ROLERead all curated data; interactive warehouse.
CDO analyst / power userRWD_ANALYST_PHI_ROLEEverything plus staging, Cortex AI, scratch write.
Data engineerRWD_DATA_ENGINEER_ROLEEverything plus ETL warehouses, OPERATE/MONITOR.

Permissions matrix

CapabilityViewerResearcherAnalystEngineer
LIMS_COHORTS / DASHBOARD (SELECT)
LIMS_PUB foundation (SELECT)
VARIANTS (SELECT)
Staging schemas (SELECT)
Cortex AI features
RWD_ANALYTICS (write)
ETL warehouses (OPERATE)
CREATE ROLE, manage users

Warehouse access by role

WarehouseViewerResearcherAnalystEngineer
QUERY_INTERACTIVE_WHUSAGEUSAGEUSAGE
QUERY_ANALYTICS_WHUSAGEUSAGE
BI_WHUSAGE
AI_WHUSAGEUSAGE
ETL_TRANSFORM_WHUSAGE + OPERATE